Offering a foreigner's view on Korean TV and movies

Drama Review – Ruby Ruby Love (OnStyle, 2017)

The one good thing about going away on a solo trip is, having time to marathon shows while on the move. Granted, Ruby Ruby Love is a five-episode web drama lasting a total of 75min or so, so it isn’t exactly a marathon. I did marathon 1% of Anything and completed the remaining 30+ episodes of Our Gab Soon (review later!), so I guess mission accomplished? But anyway, this is one short drama that’s nothing new or interesting in terms of plot, just some cute fluff.

Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun stars as the titular Ruby, who’s a talented (?) and budding jewelry designer, suffering from a bad case of social anxiety (yes, not unlike Introverted Boss). Each episode is named after a gemstone, which meaning is the central theme of that episode. So Ruby receives a mysterious ruby ring which grants her confidence (all for a period of 180 minutes), and it works only thrice.

The story begins as Ruby needs to attend a prize award ceremony which she won the grand prize for jewelry design, but she’s freaked out at the mere thought of standing in public. Out comes the ruby ring, which gave her an entire makeover on top of a confidence boost. She attends the ceremony to everyone’s surprise, and catches the eye of her crush, Ji Seok (Lee Yi Kyung). He’s a manager (?) of some jewelry company and recognizes Ruby’s talents.

But of course, there’s also another guy who recognizes Ruby’s talents as well as love her as she originally is. He is none other than Won Seok (Lee Cheol Woo), an avid photographer (?) who also runs errands for Ruby since she refuses to step out of the house.

Show depicts how Ruby overcomes her social anxiety in a rather simple manner, and it totally felt like a child’s play. I guess the intended audience are probably teens and young adults, which explains the straightforward storyline and one dimensional characters. Granted, there’s only slightly over an hour to tell a story, things can’t get too complex I suppose. It’s still an okay watch if you just want something light to pass time.